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Hours before her termination hearing in front of Manchester’s Board of Aldermen, Housing Stability Director Adrienne Beloin took a deal to resign her post and end her public spat with elected officials.

Beloin walks away with a $57,000 payment, according to sources, after she spent weeks trashing board members in public when they began questioning her management of the city’s Beech Street shelter. Aldermen complained about Beloin’s condescending answers to their questions and her refusal to follow the board’s guidance.

When asked for comment, Mayor Jay Ruais’ office released a statement: “The personnel matter has been resolved, and the mayor has received Ms. Beloin’s resignation effective tomorrow, April 12, 2024. The mayor will not be commenting on personnel matters.”

Beloin refused to accept the board’s policy and said it lacked the necessary experience to set the agenda for her department.

“I know it’s very hard for you to understand what the work is that we’re doing, because this is not your field of work,” she told Aldermen at a public meeting last week.

Beloin doubled and tripled down, going to the media and blasting the board for pushing her out and claiming it lacked the expertise to instruct her regarding homeless policy.

At one point, she claimed the board giving her an office in the Beech Street shelter was retaliation.

Beloin’s lack of a permanent office in city hall was something she wanted corrected, but apparently balked when given an office in the shelter she oversaw.

While Beloin tried to turn the controversy into a personal issue between herself and individual board members, a source close to the negotiations told NHJournal the real problem came down to policy.

It was Beloin’s refusal to be accountable to elected leaders and to follow their policy directive that ultimately ended her tenure.

“This isn’t personal; it’s policy. She refused to do what the board wanted. What else were they supposed to do?” the source said.

Another city insider told NHJournal Beloin was protected by former Mayor Joyce Craig, who kept her away from aldermen who questioned how she did her job.

According to a report by the Union Leader, Beloin’s settlement included $27,064.36 in wages, $25,000 for compensatory damages, and $5,000 for attorney fees.

Manchester’s homelessness crisis, and Craig’s mishandling of that crisis, is seen as a primary reason for Ruais’ win in the mayoral race last year. The Republican ran on a promise of fixing the problem.

Beloin is now the city’s second Housing Stability Director to leave since the position was created a few years ago. The first director, Schonna Green, suddenly quit in 2022 after about a year and a half on the job, citing personal reasons.

Manchester’s homelessness crisis peaked in the winter of 2023 when a homeless woman gave birth to a child at an outdoor camp, and two people died in their tents. Homeless camps dominate parts of Manchester’s downtown, and those camps account for at least half of the city’s opioid overdose calls.

Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais presented his first budget to city leaders Thursday night, telling them he is grappling with lower city revenue, funding shortfalls created by the last administration, and exploding healthcare costs.

But, he added, it’s still a budget that will help the city grow.

“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Ours is a city filled with undeniable and unquantifiable promise, and this budget responsibly funds our potential,” Ruais said.

He presented his proposed $189 million city budget and $227 million school budget Thursday night in the aldermanic chambers. Despite economic pressures that include a more than $3 million hole, Ruais’ spending proposal comes in with a 3.86 percent increase, well under the 5.6 percent tax cap limit.

“We had to make tough decisions,” Ruais said.

Ruais’s predecessor, Democrat Joyce Craig, left him with a $1.7 million funding gap after she used federal COVID relief funds to cover ongoing expenses in her last city budget. Add to that an overage in city employee healthcare costs of $1.4 million, and a dramatic drop in new revenue from $4.5 million last year to $166,000 this year.

Craig is now running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Ruais’s proposal freezes hiring in the city, eliminates funding for vacant positions, and cuts city department requests by almost $2 million. Ruais said his budget focuses on growing the city and strengthening its finances for the future. That means he’s also cutting the bonding that future generations will pay by 10 percent and leveling funding of city departments.

The budget does not include any layoffs, however. City employees will be receiving a 4 percent cost of living adjustment. Ruais’ budget focuses on education, public safety, quality of life, and ending the homeless crisis.

He wants to use $1.65 million in federal funds to build 45 affordable housing units, as well as funding for programs like Families in Transition, which would receive $70,000 for family emergency housing; WayPoint would receive $89,000 for its homeless youth shelter; YWCA would receive $70,000 for Emily’s Place; and 1269 Café would receive $50,000 to double its residential room capacity.

Those investments would help prevent the city from relying on emergency shelters, which are expensive and not long-term solutions for homeless people.

Importantly, Ruais does not want to keep using limited funding to create new and ongoing expenses for taxpayers. The city’s homeless engagement center came together with federal funds which are now running out. Instead of putting that expense onto the tax rolls, Ruais wants to use remaining ARPA funds to keep the center as a non-profit not funded by the city.

“ARPA has fully funded the engagement center since its inception; and those funds run out on June 30. I don’t believe cities should be in the shelter business, and we do not have the resources to fund this in the long term. We should take this opportunity to transition from a city run shelter, to that of a nonprofit,” Ruais said. “What I am proposing today is that we take a portion of the ARPA money we have left to build a transitional bridge to the nonprofit that will take over. This is an important strategy allowing us to address these real challenges without having the taxpayer bear the full burden.”

Ruais also wants to see increased spending in the city welfare department to keep people from falling through the cracks and ending up homeless. This type of humane investment in people is good for the community and the taxpayer, he said.

Manchester’s police and fire departments aren’t expected to shoulder any cuts. Ruais is making sure 10 officers funded through a federal COPS grant will continue, as will the six new officers hired since January. Mental health funding for officers will also continue. Firefighters are getting $100,000 in new protective gear to keep them safe on the job.

“You have our back, and this budget has yours,” Ruais said.

While the school part of the proposal, $227 million, may not be everything the district is seeking, Ruais said it is a solid compromise and a generous allocation.

“We were able to invest an additional $1 million into our school district. The $227 million we are proposing to allocate this evening represents the most ever allocated by the City of Manchester,” Ruais said.

The budget includes more than $5 million in funding for road repairs and funding to incentivize property owners to beautify their downtown buildings with the aim of attracting people and businesses to the city. Additionally, Ruais proposes investing in parks and youth sports to enhance the quality of life.

“We’re being inundated with repeat offenders,” Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais said Wednesday, and it’s past time for the state legislature to do something about it.

That was the mayor’s message during a gathering of city leaders in the Aldermanic Chambers to call on lawmakers in Concord to fix the bail system that’s made Manchester ground zero for a revolving door system for criminals.

Of the 817 people Manchester Police arrested this year alone, 306 — or 37 percent — were already out on bail for a previous criminal charge. In the last 12 months, repeat offenders made up 26 percent of the total arrests, with 1,178 people already on bail of the total 4,529.

Ruais gathered city leaders Wednesday in the Aldermanic Chambers to call on lawmakers in Concord to fix the bail system that’s made Manchester ground zero for a revolving door system for criminals.

“People need to feel safe on our streets. The safety of our citizens is non-negotiable. We cannot allow our community to experience this repeat criminal activity,” Ruais said.

As state lawmakers debate different proposals to fix the bail system, Ruais and city leaders advocated for two changes they say would have a meaningful impact: Eliminate personal recognizance bail for all felony charges, and require anyone who is arrested while on bail to go before a judge for a new bail hearing.

Assistant Police Chief Peter Marr said the problem of repeat offenders getting easy personal recognizance bail and then going on to commit more crimes is directly tied to the 2018 bail reform law. The broken system is pushing police officers to the brink, Marr said.

“It’s very tough, it is a morale decreaser,” Marr said. “It does have an effect.”

The most common charges for people on bail are drug possession, being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon, simple assault, and criminal threatening, Ruais said.

“The questions that I would ask is this: Which of these crimes are acceptable to [allow to] occur repeatedly in our community? And what is it going to take to fix this?” Ruais said.

In the summer of 2022, Raymond Moore, now 42, allegedly stabbed and killed 75-year-old Manchester resident Daniel Whitmore. Whitmore had been walking and feeding ducks when he was allegedly killed by Moore, a man who at the time was on bail for two different cases, one involving an assault charge and one involving resisting arrest. Moore is currently being held after he was found incompetent to stand trial.

Ruais got elected with a promise to tackle crime, addiction, and homelessness that’s impacting Manchester’s quality of life. During a meeting this week with the board members of the 1269 Cafe, a Christian outreach ministry for the city’s homeless located on Union Street, Ruais said the board members expressed concern with safety in the surrounding neighborhood.

Even with statistics showing a drop in criminal activity in Manchester, that is not what is happening around the 1269 Cafe, Ruais said.

“The problem is they don’t see it’s getting better,” Ruais said.

Staff at 1269 were unable to comment to NHJournal Wednesday. Inside 1269’s facility, people were being served meals downstairs while staff upstairs assisted others with rehabilitation intake services. Outside the building a group of homeless people gathered, and there were many small sidewalk encampments throughout the neighborhood.

Manchester’s problem with repeat offender crime is a problem that affects the whole state, Ruais said. Repeat offenders drive the perception the city is not safe for businesses, residents, and visitors in New Hampshire’s largest city. Manchester can be an economic force for good in the Granite State, he said, but it is being held back by the 25 to 30 percent of repeat offender criminals.

“A thriving Manchester is good for the entire state of New Hampshire,” Ruais said.

Less than 24 hours after being sworn in, Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais was already at work on one of his top priorities: reducing crime on his city’s streets by fixing the state’s broken bail system.

Ruais led a bipartisan coalition of Manchester officials to the capitol Wednesday morning, where he laid out what he sees as the brutal math from lax bail rules.

“The reason I made this one of my first official acts is to highlight the importance of this issue to our city,” Ruais said. “In 2023, 813 criminals were arrested, released, and rearrested. Many of these criminals were not just arrested for petty crimes but violent assaults, robberies, and other serious offenses.

“There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that would have a more transformative effect on the city of Manchester than reforming our state’s bail laws,” Ruais added.

Since 2018’s controversial bail reform law, thousands of alleged Manchester criminals charged with violent crimes have been released without bail only to get arrested on new charges. Rep. Ross Berry (R-Manchester) said some of those suspects have been charged with murder.

“Eight is the number of times my constituent was stabbed to death by somebody already out on double-PR bail,” Berry said.

Ruais, a Republican, scored his upset victory over Democrat Kevin Cavanaugh in last year’s election by running on issues like crime, homelessness, and the city’s lack of order. The word is out on the street in Manchester that criminals get a free pass, Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long warned.

“I recall being in a (homeless) encampment in Manchester and overhearing the residents in that encampment talking about no concern with breaking into cars, trespassing. There was no concern (because) they would be back out on the street in a couple of hours,” Long said.

Long is also a Democratic state representative.

The original bail reform bill passed in 2018 was aimed at keeping poor people who are charged with non-violent crimes from getting locked up because they could not afford a $100 or $200 cash bail, according to Sen. Donna Soucy (D-Manchester). Soucy said even in 2018, she and other lawmakers were worried about the unintended consequences.

“This has been an issue for a long time,” Soucy said. “I was in the Senate when we initially enacted bail reform, and although well-intentioned, I think we all recognized this law needs fine-tuning.”

Ruais promised in Tuesday’s inaugural address he would champion bail reform and lobby lawmakers until they got it right.

“The fight for our security will continue today, it will continue tomorrow, and it will continue until everyone in our community feels safe,” Ruais said Tuesday.

Ruais made sure to get to Concord Wednesday, on his first full day on the job, to put friendly pressure on lawmakers as they opened their legislative session for the year. Two proposed bail reform bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, have a good chance to pass this session.

Ruais isn’t saying which proposal he prefers, leaving it up to legislators to do their job in crafting a bill that works and will pass.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to move its bill, SB-249, to the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Daryl Abbas (R-Salem) said it is past time for a bail reform bill that protects people.

“We have heard testimony for years in both the House and the Senate that we need bail reform. We have dangerous individuals committing crimes, being released on bail, and then immediately reoffending,” Abbas said. “No one should be denied bail solely because they cannot afford it, and this bill will not change that. This bill requires a judge to determine whether a violent offender poses a threat to the public before being released. Senate Republicans have been fighting for years for common sense bail reform, and we will continue to do so to keep our communities safe.”

Manchester’s next mayor needs to deal with the city’s homeless crisis and rampant crime, and members of the Manchester Business Alliance (MBA) who attended Wednesday night think Republican Jay Ruais is the man for the job.

Ruais trounced his three Democratic competitors, Kevin Cavanaugh, Will Stewart, and June Trisciani, in the MBA straw pool Wednesday evening. Ruais got 84 percent of the vote following the group’s town hall forum with the candidates, where he focused his message on making Manchester safe.

“Manchester is looking for solutions and action, not talk,” Ruais said.

Ruais is the sole Republican in the race and the only candidate who is not a member of the Board of Aldermen. He has made public safety — in particular, crime and the city’s homelessness crisis — his top issue. Last month, he laid out a comprehensive plan to deal with homelessness, and he is the only candidate who has pledged to promote a bail reform plan to keep more offenders off Manchester streets.

A homeless encampment at Pine and Manchester Streets near the Families in Transition emergency shelter in Manchester.

“This truth was evident in (Wednesday) night’s straw poll. As the issues portion of the poll indicated, homelessness and crime are the two biggest issues in our city, and I am the only candidate in this race to have introduced a comprehensive plan to end the homeless crisis and make our neighborhoods and streets safer,” Ruais said.

The city’s homeless crisis continues to grow as the number of people living on the streets in dangerous and unclean camps in parks and on sidewalks steadily increases. This week, Cavanaugh, Stewart, and Trisciani all voted against a proposed fix for the city’s ordinance against camping on public property.

Republican Alderman Joseph Kelly Levasseur, who proposed the change, told WFEA’s Drew Cline Thursday that the Democratic-controlled Board of Aldermen is allowing the problem to worsen.

“Manchester has branded itself as the place to come if you are a homeless person,” Levasseur said.

Homeless people are living all over the city, mostly in the downtown areas. Parks and sidewalks have become encampments and no-go zones for some residents.

The sidewalks around the Families in Transition adult emergency shelter at the corner of Manchester and Pine streets host one homeless camp in the heart of the city. Men and women were seen in makeshift shelters there last weekend, sprawled out on the sidewalk. People in the camps were aggressive and violent when encountered by NHJournal.

No one on the Board of Aldermen seems serious about dealing with the immediate problem and its negative impact on the quality of life in the city, Levasseur told Cline. 

Levasseur believes Manchester’s handling of homelessness is in conflict with state law, and he wants city police to have more tools to use to stop camping on public property. The proposed change would have resulted in civil violations and possible fines for homeless people who camp on public property. 

Moving people out of homeless camps on public property is a hot-button issue in the Queen City, with opponents claiming it violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

“I don’t understand why getting a citation is the same as ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’” Levasseur told Cline. “If you want to talk about ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ try being an alderman under Joyce Craig.”

The city opened a new shelter this year after Mayor Joyce Craig ordered one homeless camp cleared. But the problem only seems to get worse, Levasseur said. He argued Manchester taxpayers have shelled out $29 million over the last six years funding shelters, new staff, and other initiatives to deal with the crisis to little effect. 

“Every single thing we can do we have done, but there doesn’t seem to be an end to it,” Levasseur said.